I Was There

I spent the weekend up in Birmingham taking in a spot of cricket. Not a bad game either. 19 wickets in two days and an audacious Aussie run chase that had the Barmy Army considering mass Hari-Kari. Chuck in a Saturday night curry from a restaurant that had lost its roof to a tornado a week before and you’Â’ve got the makings of a pretty good couple of days away.

Those of you interested in cricket will know that things were looking pretty dire for the Aussies on Sunday morning. They had 107 runs to get and only two wickets in hand. I’Â’m not normally a betting man but when I entered the ground and saw Ladbrokes offering 16-1 on an Australian win I felt compelled to back the boys. I slapped down some hard-earned cash – well, a pound – and decided that if I won I’d buy my English mates a couple of beers as consolation.

It wasn’Â’t until Australia fell three runs short and I took the betting ticket out to tear it up dramatically like they do in all those old horse racing movies that I noticed that Ladbrokes had only given me 14 -1. The b—–ds had gypped me. I decided there and then that if I ever found myself at Edgbaston on the last day of a test match with Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz chasing too many runs I’Â’d give my pound to Betfair instead. They’re probably just as bad as Ladbrokes but the girls handing out their pamphlets were way cuter.